The risk of withdrawal was increased two-fold with in utero exposure to psychotropic medications along with opioids.

HealthDay News — Use of psychotropic medications in addition to prescription opioids during pregnancy is associated with increased risk and severity of neonatal drug withdrawal, according to a study published in The BMJ.

Krista F. Huybrechts, PhD, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues conducted an observational cohort study involving 201,275 pregnant women with public insurance who were exposed to opioids around the time of delivery and their liveborn infants.

The researchers observed variation in the absolute risk for neonatal drug withdrawal from 1.0% to 11.4% for infants exposed in utero to prescription opioids alone and opioids co-prescribed with gabapentin, respectively.